The problem with the Hobbit playfield art isn't that it's Photo vs. cartoon...or even the colors. It's just...empty. It's just a whole lot of nothing. It looks boring. I know it's subjective, but I'm a big fan of the LOTR playfield art...I think it tells you a lot of information in a limited space, with good composition, "action lines" on the shots, main characters (I like how the fellowship inserts are above their respective characters near the middle of the PF), the armies rushing at the bottom by the flippers, and lots of other little tidbits...it's very organic and classy looking, IMO...one of my favorite "photoshopped" playfields for sure. The mountain, dragon and SKY SKY SKY with little heads off to the sides on Hobbit playfield just don't work. I think some more interesting and dynamic work could have been done on the playfield with Smaug & the various characters. Maybe the thought was that the LCD would be telling you the story with Smaug & the characters....but still, you want an attractive playfield to look at while you're playing. It's just weird that an 11 year old Stern game looks better...from the same licensor, no less - so I don't think it's quite fair to blame them in this instance. They approved it, but they didn't design it.